Chapter 19: Politics in the Age of Enterprise, 1877-1896

The Politics of the Status Quo
- In the era after the Civil War, the era of sectional strife ended (to an extent) with Rutherford B.
Hayes safely settled in the White House.
- Whilst many republicans had envisioned a smaller government then what was in place during this
time, it still had many core public functions that were irreducible.
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However, they still celebrated this as “that government which governs least.”

The Washington Scene
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There were five presidents from 1877 to 1893.
1. Rutherford B. Hayes (R, 1877-1881)
2. James A. Garfield (R, 1881)
3. Chester A. Arthur (R, 1881-1885)
4. Grover Cleveland (D, 1885-1889)
5. Benjamin Harrison (R, 1889-1893)
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All were effective presidents, but nothing to get too excited about.
- The hardest part of these president’s jobs was dispensing patronage to those faithful to them
(under the spoils system.)
- This meant giving government appointments as rewards for those who had served the
victorious party.
- This process was reformed slightly after Garfield was assassinated because of what
historians think was frustration felt by the assassin after not being rewarded with a government
appointment.
- The Pendleton Act (1883) “established a bipartisan Civil Service Commission
authorized to fill federal jobs by examination,” however, it only covered 10% of the jobs.
- During this time, the executive branch held only a modest amount of power and often took a
back seat on Capitol Hill when it came to issues of national policy.
- Party lines became blurred, as Republicans and Democrats found themselves supporting
many of the same things, and the splits came from within the parties.
- The one issue that the two powerhouse parties could agree to disagree on however was
tariffs.

Campaign Politics
- Taking a stand on big issues (like tariffs) was risky because the parties were so evenly
matched during this era.
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However, they still ardently campaigned against each other.
- Republicans often “waved the bloody shirt” against the Democrats, while Democrats
would criticize them in response for “clinging too long to outworn issues and neglecting the
problems … which now perplex the country” (Lord Bryce).
- Campaigns could also turn to comedy (in which amidst all the “mudslinging” the issues
got lost)…
- Republicans said “Maw, Maw, where’s my Paw?” to Democrat Cleveland because
he had fathered an illegitimate child when he was a bachelor a few years earlier.
- After Cleveland won, his supporters would respond, “He’s in the White House,
haw-haw-haw.”
- Cleveland’s opponent, James G. Blaine, lost himself the election (or so think many
historians) when he called the Democrat party the party of “Rum, Romanism and
Rebellion.”
- This very well may have lost him the election because it seriously offended the
Catholic voting base.
- Many politicians went back to believing in the doctrine of laissez-faire, which was the
belief that the less government interfered, the better.

The Ideology of Individualism
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During the age of enterprise, an ideology of individualism grew in appeal all over the nation.
- A large number of popular writings trumpeted this ideology, such as the rags-to-riches
fictional tales of Horatio Alger, or the real story of Andrew Carnegie.
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Religious leaders also began to associate riches with godliness.

Social Darwinism
- The ideology of individualism drew a lot of support during this era from biologists who
embraced Charles Darwin theory of natural selection presented in his book, On the Origin of
Species (1859).
- While many people referred to it as evolution, Darwin refused to use the term because it
suggested an “upward progression”.
- In his view, natural selection was blind because natural environments changed
randomly, which meant the adaption of species was random.
- The idea of Social Darwinism was developed by British philosopher Herbert Spencer,
who said that human society had advanced through competition and “survival of the fittest.”
- He said that millionaires were the fittest, and that they should not interfere with
social processes, because “things will sweep on just the same in spite of us.”

The Supremacy of the Courts
- Suspicion of the government shifted a large amount of power away from the executive and
legislative branches toward the judiciary branch.
- “They became the guardians of the rights of private property against the grasping
tentacles of government.”
- The main targets of the courts were state governments because they still had residual powers
(powers not delegated to the federal government in the Constitution) over social welfare and
economic regulation.
- They found their best weapon in the Fourteenth Amendment, which had originally meant
to protect the ex-slaves in the South, but now was utilized in the fight to protect private
property.
- However, they also targeted the federal government, suspending a federal income tax
law because they deemed it unconstitutional.
- The preeminent jurist of the day was Stephen J. Field, who was adamant on the fact that “it
was becom[ing] more and more the imperative duty of the court to enforce with a firm hand
every guarantee of the Constitution.”
- Judicial supremacy showed how much the ideology of individualism had become entrenched
in industrial American society and also how the view of American politicians had fallen in the
regards of their fellow American.

Politics and the People
- Although the American people were sick with politicians, they still had an enormous appetite for
politics.
- This is seen by the fact that, proportionately, more voters turned out in presidential elections
from 1876 to 1892 than at any other time in American history.
- People voted Democrat or Republican for their whole lifetime, and national conventions attracting
huge crowds.

Cultural Politics: Party, Religion, and Ethnicity
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During this era, party paraphernalia flooded the country, items such as…
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Handkerchiefs, mugs, posters, and buttons.
- All were emblazoned with the Democratic donkey or the Republican elephant, symbols
that had been adopted in the 1870s.
- Party loyalty was a serious matter during the age of enterprise, it was ridiculous for any selfrespecting for any northerner to be anything but a Republican, and vice versa in the South.
- Beyond these sectional differences, the most important determinants of party loyalty were
religion and ethnicity. These ethnicities – most often party (in the Midwest)…
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
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Irish Catholics – 95% Democrat
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Polish Catholic – 95% Democrat
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German Catholic – 85% Democrat
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German Lutheran – 55% Democrat
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Dutch Reformed – 70% Republican
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Swedish Lutheran – 90% Republican
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Irish Protestant – 95% Republican
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Free Will Baptist – 95% Republican
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Methodist – 90% Republican
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Congregational – 90% Republican
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Presbyterian – 70% Republican
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Disciples – 60% Democrat
Ethnocultural conflicts began to flare up over issues such as…
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Activities allowed on Sundays.
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The legality of liquor.
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Educational practices.
Organizational Politics
- Late nineteenth-century politics brought not only huge numbers of political machines (from
local to national) which brought corruption, however, it did bring somewhat of a more
professional government.
- Political machines were incredibly common during this time period and the machine “boss”
was the leader of each political machine.
- However, this boss really ruled more “by the consent of the secondary leaders than by
his own absolute power.”
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Political corruption came mostly by the means of the spoils system.
- Party machines also did some good though, by doing informally “much of what the
governmental system left undone, especially in the cities.”

The Mugwumps
- The Mugwumps were Republican reformers who banded together in order to stop the renomination of Chester A. Arthur.
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Their form of reform was to create a government that was…
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Disinterested
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Impartial
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Run by an educated elite (like themselves lololol).
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There was a large crossover between the Mugwumps and the Social Darwinists.
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Their form of Laissez-Faire government…
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Favoritism and the spoils system were good, and should be continued.
- The target of this group was political corruption; they were uninterested in changing
economic or social policies.

Women’s Political Culture
- During the Gilded Age, men still argued that politics was no place for women, but in spite of
this the women’s suffrage movement reformed in 1890 as the National American Woman
Suffrage Association.
- Their campaigns began to focus more on individual state governments, rather than the
federal one.
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Men stated that women operated in a “separate sphere”.
- Their sphere did open a channel for women into public life however, as this sphere was
“home”.
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“Home” included their community, and so they began engaging in uplifting
activities, such as…
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Fighting prostitution.
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Assisting the poor.
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Agitating for prison reform.
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Demand better educational and job opportunities.
- Another thing that occurred (in Hillsboro, OH) was that women began to picket saloons,
appealing to owners to close their doors so that hard-drinking fathers would stop causing misery
in their families.
- From this occurrence, the WCTU (Woman’s Christian Temperance Union), led by
Frances Willard was begun and became the preeminent women’s organization in America.

Frances Willard and Women’s Politics
- Frances Willard became president of the WCTU in 1879, and felt that in order to gain
suffrage, women would have to “offer only prayerful, persistent pleas for the opportunity of
duty.”
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The majority of the members of the WCTU were like Willard that is…
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“Literary-minded”
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Evangelical Christians
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With a vocation for service
- She attempted to mold the WCTU into a political force, as seen when the WCTU was
joined with the Prohibition Party and helped the party in many Midwestern states.
- And while the Democrats and the Republicans did not support woman’s suffrage, they
knew that women influenced their husbands votes and so often tried to get their support.
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The Republicans were the most successful at this.
- Eventually, the WCTU stopped its political activism and dropped out of the woman’s
suffrage struggle.
- However, the links between the women and the powerful role they could play in
politics had now been somewhat demonstrated.

Race and Politics in the New South
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When Reconstruction ended, the results brought on were many and included…
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The segregation of public schools.
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Access to jobs, the courts, and social services was racially determined and unequal.
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Trains, which were the first public accommodation legally segregated.
- Even though the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments protected southern blacks and gave them
the right to vote, through gerrymandering, intimidation, poll taxes, and literacy tests, whites remained in
control of southern governments.

Biracial Politics
- After the Civil War, the Republicans became synonymous with the North, and the
Democrats with the South, and going against the grain was seen as treasonable.
- Especially in the South, after Reconstruction, Democrats argued/fought for “home rule” and
dubbed themselves the redeemers.
- However, southern Republicans soldiered on, and supported greatly by southern Blacks,
a group of hard core whites, and a huge vulnerability of the Democrats.
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That is, they were dominated by the South’s economic elite.
- Many parties came and went in the south, including the Readjusters, who briefly came to
power in VA over the issue of Reconstruction debt, and the Populist Party.
- The Populist Party merged with the Republican party in some states (NC and TN) and
there they immediately became allies of black leaders.
- Where they didn’t merge with the Republicans, the Populists had to appeal to blacks
through other means.

One-Party Rule Triumphant
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The Democrats did not just lie down however, they struck back by these means…
- They played the race card, parading as the “white man’s party,” while saying the
Populists were for “Negro rule.”
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Ironically, they also competed for black votes.
In the competition for black votes, the Democrats had almost every advantage.
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More money.
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Control of local power structures.
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A paternalistic relationship to the black community.
- When all else failed, Democrats turned to mischief at the polls in order to beat Populist
candidates.

Black Disfranchisement
- During all of this, white supremacists sought to end the matter once and for all by
disfranchising blacks.
- This was done through state constitutional amendments in OK, LA, MI, AL, SC, NC,
and VA.
- This was done through poll taxes, literary tests, or other means in TX, AR, TN, and
FL.
- Some whites were even affected by these methods, and so some states’ adopted
grandfather clauses in which those who had ancestors who could vote on Jan. 1, 1867 (before
the Fifteenth Amendment gave freedmen that right), would still be able to vote despite new
regulations.
- Many poor whites were still affected, a large percentage of impoverished whites
stopped voting altogether.

The Ascendency of Jim Crow
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Jim Crow laws were the worst of all white supremacy.
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They applied to nearly everything, including…
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Restaurants
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Hotels
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Streetcars
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Even Cemeteries
For the first time, an entire region was segregated by law.
- This was soon ratified by the U.S. Supreme Court in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896), stating
that “separate, but equal,” was not a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The Case of Grimes County
- Grimes County is a small cotton-growing area in east TX, where African Americans
composed more than half of the population.
- Here, the Republican Party was kept going and melded with the Populist Party, and they
swept the county elections in 1896 and ’98.
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In response to this, defeated Democratic candidates and prominent citizens organized
the secret White Man’s Union, which…
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Forcibly prevented blacks from voting in town elections that year.
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Shot down the two most important black leaders in cold blood.
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Sent night riders to terrorize both white Populists and black Republicans.
- Laid siege to the sheriff’s office (the day after they swept the elections) and
killed his brother, and a friend, and caused him to the leave the county badly
wounded.
- This is just the stereotypical example of what happened in the South where Democrats
were not in charge.

The Crisis of the American Politics
- The Populist Party was a catalyst to American politics not only in the south, but everywhere,
because it woke up the two major parties.
- A struggle for power then begun in the ensuing decades between the Democrats and the
Republicans, with the Democrats initially taking the lead.
- As depression set in 1893, however, the question of which party would prevail – and on what
platform – was raised.

The Populist Revolt
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Populist was built upon the Farmers Alliances that begun in the late 1880s.
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The Southern Alliance, mainly in TX.
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The Northern Alliance, throughout the Midwest.
- These alliances were built upon the ashes of the Grange Movement, but were more
politically focused and less socially focused then the Grange.
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In 1890, they had a Bi-Election…
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The So. Alliance sought to gain control of the Democratic Party.
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The No. Alliance ran 3rd party candidates.
During the 1890s, they controlled 8 state legislatures and had 47 representatives in
Congress.
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Also in 1892, 800 met in St. Louis, MO…
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Majority of them were Alliance Members.
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Over 100 were African Americans.
- Representatives of labor organizations and other reformers were present (Grange,
Greenback Party).

Populist Ideology
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The Populist platform included these major components…
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Government ownership of railroads, telephone companies, and telegraph companies.
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Protection of land and natural resources from monopoly and foreign ownership.
- Abolition of the Pinkerton detective agency (to appeal to the Unions and Union
members).
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Re-monetization of silver, “free silver.”
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Establish a “sub-treasury system”
- A lot of people disagreed with them because it sounded somewhat like communism,
which was seen as “Anti-American.”

Free Silver
- Free Silver was the idea that the American currency would be backed by both gold and
silver, with silver equaling 1/16 of what gold was.
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They hoped that this increase in the money supply would help with inflation.
- This eventually became the defining issue for the party, which is why it waned, because
it was not unique, it was at the heart of mainstream American politics.

Money and Politics
- After the Civil War, the U.S. Treasury replaced the state banks as the source of easy money
because of the necessity of printing greenbacks to pay for the war.
- Deflation soon became a preeminent problem in the United States, and the proposal of “free
silver” became a real possibility.
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It was passed, and the U.S. treasury began to grow.
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The Bland-Allison Act of 1878 required the U.S. Treasury to purchase and coin
between $2 million and $4 million worth of silver each month.
- It went even further in 1890, in the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, in which an
addition 4.5 million ounces of silver bullion was to be purchased monthly.
- In the early 1890s, the issue of silver suddenly became the defining issue between the
parties; and in particular, it radicalized the Democrats.

Climax: The Election of 1896
- As the party in hold of the Presidency, the Democrats faced the brunt of the blame for the
economic crisis.
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Grover Cleveland did not help his case either…
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He called troops to dismantle protests on Capitol grounds and in the Pullman Strike.
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He didn’t live up to his reputation as a tariff reformer either.

Cleveland and Free Silver
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Most disastrous to his political career was his stand on the silver question.
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Nothing that happened could change his mind on this issue, not…
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Collapsing prices.
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Suffering of farmers.
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The groundswell of support for free silver within his own party.
- He sought to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and he also did under the table
negotiations with private bankers, led by J.P. Morgan, in order to purchase gold and replenish
the treasury’s depleted reserves.
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Through all this, Cleveland was essentially ousted of the Democratic Party.

William Jennings Bryan and the Cross of Gold
- William Jennings Bryan was a United States lawyer and politician who advocated free
silver and prosecuted John Scopes (1925) for teaching evolution in a Tennessee high school.
- He was nominated by the Democrats for the presidency and therefore they had become
the party of free silver.
- His “cross of gold” speech meant that the money question would be a national
crusade.
- No one could be neutral on this, Silver Republicans voted for Democrats, and gold
Democrats voted for Republicans.
- Also during the election year of 1896, electoral politics regained its place as an arena for
national debate because of the fact that William J. Bryan carried the most states.